How we had sex, later killed Sofiat Kehinde for ritual money – Ogun teens

Two of the teenage boys who allegedly murdered a 17-year-old girl, Sofiat Kehinde, at Oke Aregba area of Abeokuta, Ogun State, have confessed how they planned and cut off the head of the girl to for money ritual purposes.

The suspects, Soliu Majekodunmi (18) and Mustakeem Balogun (19) confessed to murdering the victim last Friday in the room of the former, who was her lover, after sleeping with her.

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the three of the suspects involved in the crime: Mustakeem, Gafar Lukmon and Waris Oladeinde were arrested in the early hours of Saturday by detectives from Adatan police station, led by the Divisional Police Officer, SP Abiodun Salau, after they received report from the head of the community security guards that the suspects were seen burning something suspected to be human head in a clay pot.

The fourth suspect, Soliu, who initially escaped when he noticed that they had been exposed, was however arrested subsequently, the police spokesperson said.

Mustakeem, who was among the three initially arrested had confessed that indeed, it was the head of Soliu’s girlfriend that was being burnt. This was confirmed later after Soliu’s arrest, Tribune reported.

The suspects had led detectives to the building where the act was committed, leading to the recovery of the dismembered body of Sofiat, which was thereafter deposited General Hospital, Ijaiye, Abeokuta mortuary for autopsy.

Recovered were the short cutlass and a knife used in cutting off the deceased’s head.

The suspects who spoke to Tribune on Saturday, gave a chilling account of how they carried out the heinous act.

In his confession, Majekodunmi said, “I’m 18 years old.  I’m from Abeokuta. My parents are separated but my mother has remained single while my father remarried.  I live alone. I left Egba High School, Abeokuta at SSS2 in 2021 after I told my father that I wanted to go deeper into quranic knowledge. It is true that we killed Sofiat. Actually, she was killed by Mustakeem.”

Asked why they killed her, he said, “Initially, Sofiat was Mustakeem’s girlfriend. He was the one who gave me her phone number in December 2021. I called her and thereafter told Mustakeem that she had agreed to date me. Even she followed me home the day I called her. Mustakeem told me she was not a decent girl as she liked sleeping about. He told me that we should use her for money ritual, showing me some severed heads on his phone that he told me he saw on Facebook. He asked me to pick the one he chose. He kept on pestering me but I said I didn’t have time.

“Sofiat used to come whenever I called her but whenever she told me she was on her way, I would tell her that I had gone out. We used to have sex and we did it three times.

“On Friday, she came to me. I had told Mustakeem that she was coming. He said we should seize the opportunity to kill her. We had bought N2,500 worth of ingredients which we would add to the head to perform the ritual. We bought them at Itoku market in Abeokuta.

“When she came after 8pm, we had a round of sex. After that, I went to see Mustakeem who had been outside. We went back inside. After Mustakeem  exchanged pleasantries with her, we went outside again and he asked me to sit on her and hold her hands while he would cut her head off her neck.

“I was hesitant, going out and coming in frequently.  When Mustakeem saw me jittery, he asked me to be bold, saying that nothing would happen.

“He held a pillow in which he hid a knife. I bent over the girl and was caressing her when Mustakeem pulled the knife out and made a sign to me.

“I pretended to be kissing Sofiat, and as I held her hands, Mustakeem thought I was ready, so he pulled her neck and started cutting it. The girl tried to cry out but he covered her mouth with his hand. When the neck had not been totally severed, I tried to pull the knife from his hand and got injured. The girl struggled and tried to get up but he pushed her down. Blood was just gushing out. He firmly finished severing the head.

“As I tried to drag the knife the second time, I got injured on the leg. I went outside. Mustakeem was the one who put the head and other ingredients in a clay pot and wrapped it with a cloth, and we left for the house of his friend, Gafar, to burn them at about 9pm.

“I didn’t know Gafar before then. He told Gafar that it was Sofiat’s head that was in the pot and he replied that there was no problem.

“After putting the pot on fire, we told Gafar and his brothers to watch over the pot for us. Only Gafar knew what was in it.

“Mustakeem asked that we return to my room to take care of Sofiat’s remains. I had told him that I was afraid that my brother who had a key to my room could come in anytime. Mustakeem was the one who locked my door and held the key when we were leaving for Gafar’s house. When we got back to my residence, we sat outside for long. He noticed that I was jittery and told me not to frighten him. I couldn’t follow him into my room so he went to do the clean up.

“As he was doing It, I went to the toilet and noticed that many people were at the back. I went to the front of the house and noticed many people there also, murmuring. I went to tell Mustakeem that it was as if people had learnt about what we did. He quickly locked the door and we took a side door to escape. People sighted us as we were running and were shouting ‘thief! thief!!.’

“But he was caught while I managed to escape that night. I ran to a family house at Idi-Aro. Nobody lives there but it was usually unlocked. I was arrested there on Saturday.”

Mustakeem Balogun, who is 19 years and four months old in his own confession, said, “I’m from Abeokuta and a 100 level student of Islamic Studies. I gained admission in 2021. I knew Sofiat long before before I got in contact with Soliu. One day, Soliu and I saw her at a ceremony on a morning and I talked about my past relationship with her. I knew her at my father’s Asalatu and discovered she liked having sex. Soliu asked for her number and I gave him. At night, he called me and said he had toasted the girl and she was with him as he was talking and they had had sex.

“Another day, we met again at a programme and Soliu told me that Sofiat was always calm whenever she was with him, suggesting that it would be easy to use her for money ritual.

“I showed him the heads I saved on my phone from a group on Facebook. He said he preferred the one with a single head, saying the other head that was divided into 16 parts would be difficult to handle without attracting attention.

“We were supposed to have done it on January 21 but my father invited me for an event. We had bought ingredients, which I also got from Facebook, so he told me not to worry as the girl would not escape from our hands.

“On January 28, Soliu called me and said that the day would be successful. When Sofiat came, I greeted her and left for outside. When they finished having sex, I collected the pillow in which I hid the knife from Sofiat.

“He was the one who put pressure on her and held her hands while I slit her throat. I cut the head and flesh from her thigh. I had thought that since Soliu needed the head for his money ritual, I would also need a part to use.

“Before then, Soliu had borrowed a clay pot from a relative. He said he would not be able to join me in handling the corpse and parts we needed because he was unclean by having had sex. Since I was clean, I was doing everything. We took the head to Gafar. He was not afraid but told us not to put him in trouble.

“When we got back to Soliu’s residence, he noticed people moving around the house and alerted me. I looked through the window and saw people beaming their torches.  That was how we decided to run away but I was caught since I was not familiar with the neighbourhood.

“I was the one who took the people to where we were burning the head. Waris is just a boy that came to learn the Quran from Gafar’s father.  He and other children didn’t know what was in the pot. We just told them to be watching without going near it while we went to clean up Soliu’s room. Gafar was not part of the plan to kill Sofiat but we told him about her head we brought to his father’s fireplace to burn.”

Another suspect, Gafar Lukmon, 19, said “I knew Mustakeem in a quranic school but never knew Soliu before Friday when they came to me. They said they were coming to do some work in my place and I said there was no problem. When they came, they told me they had human head in the pot for burning to prepare charms and I told them I would not be part of it. I helped them to loosen the sticks they wanted to put in the fireplace and went in to sleep.

“Time had gone and there was nothing I could do. It was at about 10pm and people go to bed early in our neighbourhood. I couldn’t inform anyone.”

On his part, Waris Oladeinde 17, said, “I was learning Quran and how to be a native doctor. They came in the afternoon on Friday.  Mustakeem sent one of us to go and buy sticks for him. I was in the toilet when I heard noise. I came out and was apprehended with people saying I was part of those burning a human head. Those two just came to put me in trouble.”